Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 77718 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77718 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Then, there’s an awkward, weird pause between us.
I shift on my feet, holding on to my towel. “So…what are you doing here?” God, that sounded way harsher than I meant it to.
Discomfort flashes through his eyes, and I want to slap myself.
“Oh, yeah. I didn’t get your text until I got back to the city. My cell battery had died, so I had to charge it in my truck on the way home. Anyway, I thought I’d swing by and check to make sure you were doing okay. And…I brought you this.” He holds out a takeout soup container that I didn’t even realize he was holding until now. “It’s soup,” he tells me, sounding awkward, which is weird for him because he’s never anything but confident. “Chicken noodle.” He scratches his cheek. “And soup helps when you’re sick, right? So, I brought you…soup.”
“That’s, uh…really…nice…thank you.” I still haven’t taken the soup from him though. I’m just standing here, staring at it, like it’s going to sprout wings and fly away.
“I—” I start, but Luke’s cheerful voice cuts me off, “Hey.”
Ares’s eyes snap around to Luke, and the look on his face…it’s awful.
Confusion quickly morphs to understanding and then turns to anger and disappointment.
It all hits me like a punch to my solar plexus.
I feel winded. And sick.
Luke is, of course, completely oblivious to the fact that I canceled my evening with Ares, telling him I was unwell because I was a complete and utter coward since I didn’t want to tell Ares the truth about my meltdown and that Luke had had to come and save me from a bar that I was sitting in, staring at a glass of wine, like the alcoholic I am.
Now, Ares is here, being sweet and bringing me soup and being a really good friend, and Luke is here with Chinese food. And Ares is going to think that I blew him off for Luke and lied to him about it.
Which I did.
But, if I tell him the truth…why Luke is here…Ares will be disgusted with me. He’ll remember that I’m everything that he despises, and he won’t want to be my friend anymore.
And I don’t want to lose him.
And, also, I’m still only wearing a frigging towel in front of both of them.
Sweet Jesus, please take the wheel.
“Hey, man.” Luke stops in front of Ares, who is standing next to me, and smiles at him. “I’m Luke.” He holds his hand out to Ares to shake his.
Ares stares down at Luke’s hand like it’s covered in shit.
For a moment, I think he isn’t going to shake his hand, but then he does.
He takes Luke’s hand and shakes it. “Ares,” he says, voice deep and rough. Shivers fly over my skin at the sound.
“The football player, right?” Luke smiles. “Well, it is good to meet you, man. Ari, I’ll take this through to the kitchen and dish it up.” Then, Luke walks past me and into my apartment, leaving me standing here with Ares.
Who I daren’t look at.
I risk a glance up at him, and his face is like stone. Eyes the bluest I’ve ever seen them. Jaw set like granite.
“I—”
“I guess you won’t be needing this,” he says in a voice that’s colder than a polar bear’s ass. He steps away from me, taking the soup with him.
“Ares—”
He cuts me off with a hollow laugh and a shake of his head, like this is what he was expecting all along…for me to let him down. “God, I’m such a fucking idiot,” he says low.
“No.” The panic in my voice is palpable. “You don’t understand—”
“Save it,” he snaps. “I’m not interested in anything you have to say.” His eyes go over my head and assumedly to Luke. Then, they come back to me, cold and hard. “Enjoy your evening,” he adds bitterly. Then, he’s gone, striding down the hall, jogging down the stairs and out of sight.
And I stand here, my heart beating a painful rhythm in my chest, eyes staring at the empty space where he just was.
Shit.
I’ve messed up bad.
He thinks I lied to him.
You did lie to him, you moron.
Fuck.
I close the door and lean back up against it.
Luke is standing in the kitchen, serving up the food. His eyes lift to mine. “Everything okay?” he asks.
“Yes…no.”
“Want to talk about it?”
It’s my turn to laugh dryly. “No.”
“Okay, but…”
“But what?”
“Well, are you sure you two are just friends?”
“Uh…” Well, we were. But I’m not so sure now. “Yeah. Of course. Why?”
“Well, I’m just wondering if he knows that. Because, for a moment there, I wasn’t sure if he was going to shake my hand or break it.”
“Oh.”
Oh.
After Ares left, I went in my room and changed into my black yoga pants and a black T-shirt. I tied my damp hair into a messy bun and then went into the living room and sat down with Luke to have the Chinese food he’d brought.